Chinese farmer invents walking, talking, rickshaw-pulling robot

Chinese farmer Wu Yulu came from an impoverished village outside of Beijing and did not have the chance to attain secondary education, but this did not stop him from teaching himself to build robots. This video features Wu’s “30 second son” (as he affectionately calls it), a walking, talking, rickshaw-pulling robot which he says is now dearer to him than his own son. Having accidentally burnt down his own house and plunged his family into debt in the process of experimenting with robots, Wu has been hailed by the media as “China’s cleverest farmer-inventor” and now works with universities and robotics companies, travelling around China to exhibit his creations.UPDATE: We have been notified that this might actually be old news. In fact we posted about it here in 2007.